SkyWatch Friday ~ Red sky in the morn....

I was up early Wednesday morning to see a friend off and was seriously considering going back to bed when I thought "what the heck, lets see what is happening in blogland". Reading away I was oblivious to the dawning day but when I looked up the sky was on fire. The first shot was through the window with reflection, shake and a flash and did nothing to capture what I was seeing but when I grabbed my coat and headed up on the dune...

(Click on the photo to enlarge and appreciate the detail)

I was blown away, figuratively and literally! This was the prelude to a screaming southeaster.

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My World Tuesday ~ A walk on the Dunes

Another one of those Oreo cookie moments between a steady stream of storms. The winds blew and blew and blew the clouds away. The sea took a little longer to settle.

The east coast of the Graham Island is mostly beautiful sand beaches for about 100 kms terminating at Rose Spit at the northeast end of the island. The Hecate Strait (seperating Haida Gwaii from mainland British Columbia) is shallow and sandy and our prevailing wind is a "southeaster".

These strong winds blow the sand that washes up on the beaches inland to form dunes. The sands if not anchored by grasses or blocked by debri on the beachs will move over a landscape claiming everything in its way.

When the natural dune vegetation is disturbed by grazing,or something as simple as
human traffic

The dunes move inland,

suffocating trees and plants
and encroaching on forests, changing vegetation (this is a border region where dune grasses are moving into the forest). As the trees are suffocated they die and become vulnerable to the winds.
Beautiful to visit and explore but so fragile.

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MY WORLD TUESDAY.